Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure continuity of funding for peatland restoration between the closure of the Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme and the full implementation of the Landscape Recovery Scheme.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises the importance of England’s peatlands, and in our manifesto, we committed to expanding nature-rich habitats such as wetlands and peat bogs. This will contribute to ensuring nature’s recovery, one of Defra’s five priorities. We have ambitions to restore hundreds of thousands of hectares of peatlands across the country, and we are working to ensure that we have the most effective mechanisms in place to go further than we have before.
Peatland restoration is currently funded via the Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme. We will continue to work with partners, farmers and land managers to enable the delivery of peat restoration, supported by agri-environmental schemes that provide long-term funding to support restoration projects. We are providing advice and guidance to enable partners to transition to new funding arrangements.
Private finance will also be vital to meeting our peatland restoration ambitions. To support peatland restoration, the Government is implementing a range of policies that will mobilise private investment. These include working with the IUCN to attract investment through the Peatland Code.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the projected funding gap for peatland restoration in the Great North Bog region between 2025 and 2028 on (a) rural employment and (b) environmental outcomes.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises the importance of England’s peatlands, and in our manifesto, we committed to expanding nature-rich habitats such as wetlands and peat bogs. This will contribute to ensuring nature’s recovery, one of Defra’s five priorities.
Peatland restoration is currently funded via the Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme. After this ends, we intend to work with partners, farmers and land managers to enable the delivery of peatland restoration, with continued support through agri-environmental schemes that provide long-term funding for restoration projects throughout the country.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to encourage (a) vets and (b) other people who interact with farmers to be trained on signposting farmers to health and support services.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra funds the Farmer Welfare Grant. This funds charities to deliver projects which will support mental health and build resilience in local farming communities. One consortium of charities, led by The Farmer Network, is delivering mental health first aid training to agricultural communities in the North of England, including Yorkshire. Recipients of this training, including farmers and farm businesses, reported a 100% increase in their knowledge and confidence of talking about mental health following this training.
Defra has set up a dedicated team to address the particular set of issues driving poor mental health outcomes in the farming and agricultural sector. One of the team’s top aims is to. improve awareness of mental health in frontline staff and ensuring frontline Defra staff are appropriately trained to deal with vulnerable customers.
Defra’s Farming and Countryside representatives were all provided training on the issue of mental health in the sector by the charity “We Are Farming Minds” facilitated by Mind in May 2025. This was in readiness for extensive outreach activity attending agricultural shows and auction marts.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of requiring an independent alternative dispute resolution process for the resolution of disputes in relation to online safety between users and platforms.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Online Safety Act 2023 requires platforms to put in place reporting and complaints processes to resolve disputes. In the first instance, service providers are best placed to respond to individual complaints on online safety. However, the Act 2023 requires Ofcom to review the efficacy of platforms’ complaint processes and publish a report within two years of the relevant duties taking effect. We expect this in early 2028.
Following this report, the Secretary of State has a power to require Category 1 services to put in place, or engage with, an ‘alternative dispute resolution’ process.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of making a renewed Government commitment to resolving disputes across Departments through mediation.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
It is a long-standing convention that we do not disclose publicly specific details on the processes of Cabinet collective decision-making, to protect the safe space for collective decisions. This Government is taking a missions-led approach to governing, bringing departments together to deliver the Plan for Change.
In the case of individual employees the Government is committed to offering mediation as a form of dispute resolution. This is already widely offered to Civil Servants by Departments across the Civil Service as a means to resolve workplace conflict promptly and effectively.
Departments have their own policies and guidance on handling disputes in line with the ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures. Mediation is a recommended method of dispute resolution within the ACAS guidance.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she has had recent discussions with relevant stakeholders on the potential merits of increasing the use of mediation to resolve building disputes.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
My Department has had no recent discussions with stakeholders about the increased use of mediation within the planning system.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions she has had with relevant stakeholders on the potential merits of increasing the use of mediation in the planning process.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
My Department has had no recent discussions with stakeholders about the increased use of mediation within the planning system.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of the use of mandatory mediation in the Competition Appeal Tribunal.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government supports the use, where appropriate, of mediation as a means to resolve regulatory disputes. However, the decision on whether to use mediation, and whether it is appropriate in a particular case, is primarily a matter for the parties in any dispute.
Further, the Competition Appeal Tribunal is an independent specialist tribunal with significant expertise in the hearing and deciding of cases involving competition or economic regulatory issues. Any decisions or directions in relation to case management or party conduct are an independent judicial matter considered on a case-by-case basis.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of class actions on (a) businesses and (b) consumers.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Supporting consumers (including businesses) in accessing redress is of the utmost importance to this Government, and how consumer protection could be improved is kept under regular review.
So-called ‘class actions’ are just one avenue for consumers to seek redress and can provide a helpful avenue to do so where many individuals have claims substantially similar in nature. My department’s remit is limited to collective actions brought in relation to competition issues, where this tool can improve access to justice where bringing a claim would otherwise be impractical or unaffordable.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the use of the current mediation scheme for medical negligence disputes.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Resolution manages clinical negligence and other claims against the National Health Service in England. NHS Resolution is committed to the use of dispute resolution, including the use of mediation and is working with claimant lawyers and its own lawyers on innovative approaches. This includes running pilots exploring which dispute resolution techniques work best in particular types of cases and introducing several into routine claim- handling. This approach is being developed further under NHS Resolution’s published 2025-28 strategy.
Increasingly higher numbers of NHS Resolution’s cases are now resolved pre-action using a wide range of dispute resolution techniques. These approaches can improve the experience for patients and healthcare staff through a less adversarial approach and can also reduce legal costs for both sides. In 2023/24, 81% of all clinical claims handled by NHS Resolution were resolved without court proceedings.